Menendez does not appear to be focus of FBI raid, doctor's lawyer says

View full sizeA van is parked outside the West Palm Beach, Fla., office of eye doctor Salomon Melgen, a friend and campaign donor to U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez at the center of an FBI investigation.Salvador Rizzo/The Star-Ledger

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The attorney for Salomon Melgen, a friend and campaign donor of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez whose Florida office was raided by the FBI on Tuesday, said today the agents did not say what they were looking for but that he did not believe it had to do with Menendez — "at least that was not their focus."

"I can only tell you what we know, which is they don’t tell us what they’re doing," the lawyer, Dean Willbur, said in a phone interview. "They come in, they get files, and they actually had us copy more files."

"We’re cooperating fully, and we do not know what their investigation is in regards to," he added.

Several news organizations reported today that the FBI was joined in the raid by representatives of the federal Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the inspector general, which investigates fraud in federal health programs.

At Melgen’s main office today on a tree-lined boulevard here, the doctor was not in and employees kept the lights dim, opening the doors for a bank courier and a UPS delivery but refusing to talk to reporters. After Tuesday night’s raid, law enforcement officials returned on Wednesday, but none were seen this morning.

Signs posted on the doors advised reporters who were looking for Melgen to call Willbur.

At Melgen's home in North Palm Beach, a woman who answered the door said the doctor was not home and did not know where he was. A worker outside the house — situated on a cul-de-sac in a gated community by the water — said he couldn't say where Melgen was and asked a reporter to leave the neighborhood.

News reports alleging Menendez had flown to the Dominican Republic for trysts with prostitutes surfaced in early November on the Daily Caller, a conservative website.

Then last week an anonymous blog published dozens of emails between an anonymous tipster and an FBI agent in which it is alleged that some were underage. According to the emails, the FBI agent tried to talk on the phone or meet with the tipster, but there is no indication that occurred.

Willbur, said, "Those people would never even talk on the phone to the FBI, nor would they even meet directly to the FBI. It’s great to make those kinds of allegations, but when the FBI does anything to try to firm up those allegations, they get zero."

Menendez has vehemently denied the allegations.

When asked to comment on the accusations, Senate Majority Leader told reporters in Washington: " First of all Bob Menendez is my friend. He's an outstanding senator. He's now the new chair of the Foreign Relations Committee. Any questions in this regard, direct to him. I don't know anything about it."

Menendez’s office said Wednesday that the senator chartered Melgen’s jet three times in 2010, and properly reported for and paid for all the trips. But when pressed, a spokesman for Menendez acknowledged the senator did not reimburse Melgen $58,500 for two of the trips until Jan. 4 — after a Republican lawmaker from New Jersey asked the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate and after the first allegations about Menendez’s trips to the Dominican Republican surfaced.

At a campaign event today, Gov. Chris Christie — a former U.S. Attorney — said it’s too early for him to say what he thinks about the raid.

"You never know what the real story is until the prosecutors have the opportunity to lay out their evidence," Christie said.

Star-Ledger staff writer Ryan Hutchins in East Newark contributed to this report.